Democracy is dead. Long life atomocracy!
atomocracy (from the Greek words άτομο (atom) "individual" and κράτος (kratos) "power"): form of government in which each individual can choose how he or she wants to be governed independently of the decisions of the other individuals.
Old people of the city tells the story that in a close town there were three companies dedicated to marketing and communication located in the same building, on three contiguous floors, one over each other. The building was flat and it was oriented to the south. Thus some offices could always enjoy the sunlight, but the offices across the hall almost never received any sunbeam. All offices were initially equipped with a central air conditioning system. The problem of this system is that you never can satisfy everybody. When summer sun was hitting mercilessly, south-facing offices demanded the temperature of the air conditioning system to be decreased. But when doing so, the temperature in the offices located in the north face was so low that many of the workers there were getting colds very often and they were continually requesting sick leaves. If they had obeyed the offices on the north side, then the office workers in the south-facing offices would have suffered so hot temperature that their productivity would have been reduced significantly, and some would have also fainted.
In the company located on the 7th floor of the building all decisions were made always by the boss, who had his office at one end of the plant, with east orientation. When the morning sun lit up his office, he reduced the temperature of the air conditioning of the entire plant, so that employees on the north face suffered the consequences. In the afternoon, when the sun no longer illuminated boss’ office, the temperature was increased and then it was the workers on the south side of the building who were suffering the heat. However he was the boss and no one dared to contradict him for fear of being fired.
In the company located on the 8th floor of the same building the temperature was decided by a voting system, and the majority decided if the temperature had to be raised or lowered. Depending on the season, supporters of raising or lowering the temperature were alternating victories. Nobody was permanently happy but every employee had the feeling of “winning” at least for a few months. The rest of the year he was suffering the consequences.
The company located on the 9th floor decided to undertake a troublesome, annoying and costly refurbishment of the whole plant, and installed an individual air conditioning system for each office, with individual controls systems. Therefore each employee could set the temperature of his/her office as he/she wanted, to create the most suitable working environment.
Over the months the company from the ninth floor began to become more competitive against those of the other two, up to a point of snatching them the market and almost all customers. In addition, as they had also more and more work, many employees of the companies located in the seventh and eighth floors left their companies and sought work in the company plant located on the ninth floor. After a couple of years the company from the 9th floor had completely absorbed the other two, rented the two floors, and hired all its employees, which now enjoyed air conditioning systems individualized and better wages and conditions because to higher productivity.
The corollary of the story for the old people of the city was clear: "No one knows what is better for you than yourself."
If the building were the World, each plant were a country, and how to control the air conditioning were their forms of government, seventh floor would clearly be a dictatorship, and the eighth floor a democracy. The stale and negative aspects of the dictatorship are well known and need not additional comment. But ... what about the democracy?
Well, the democracy is also obsolete.
In February this year I attended the International Students for Liberty (SFL) conference in Washington DC, where I had the "honor" of listening to Oliver Stone live during one of the panels. One of my friends from Estudiantes para la Libertad (SFL Latin American branch) asked him about his opinion on what was happening at that time in Venezuela. In February the student revolts in Venezuela had already started and so had done the casualties among the young students when protesting against their Government. The answer of Oliver Stone was pretty embarrassing: "last elections in Venezuela were the most fair and transparent in its history and democracy in Venezuela is exemplary; it is the opposition who is acting undemocratically."
Not for being expected the response was less unfortunate. When someone like Oliver Stone, defender of the worst totalitarian regimes in Central and South America, stands as a defender of democracy, it is when you realize that democracy is reallyf*cked.
Very recently in Turkey President Erdogan was caught in a conversation with his son giving instructions to get rid of 700 million euros. The conversation was dropped to the Internet and it flooded the social networks during the Turkish electoral campaign. In retaliation Erdogan ordered to block Twitter and Youtube, crushing as well the riots that were taking place on the streets. In the elections held a few days after he won again with a remarkable majority.
But there´s no need to leave the country: in Spain we are also experts in this field. In the last European elections, the party that has ruled for 40 years in Andalusia, which is involved in an endless number of corruption cases, won again the elections. Same in Valencia. And 1.2 million Spaniards voted for a party whose electoral program, if implemented, would condemn the country to hunger and misery. Proposition 8 in California, Arab Spring results... there are thousands of examples. That is democracy.
What does then all this mean?
It has only one meaning: democracy is dead; democracy is overcome; democracy is obsolete. I do not deny the historical role that democracy has had in building free societies but it has already reached its saturation point and it can only regress.
Then, what alternatives do we have?
In the world of today, when you dare to criticize democracy or you declare yourself contrary to it, it is something like being black and getting into a KKK party. The Taliban political correctness will soon embark you with the worst dictators, even when many of those who accuse you are themselves defenders of the world's worst dictatorships. It seems that they have not understood, or they don´t want to understand, that the alternative to democracy is not dictatorship.
For example, what if when you vote for a particular party in an election, you could see yourself obligated to enjoy or suffer 100% of their electoral program? What if the vote would condition your life? What if instead of ending up being governed by what the majority voted, the vote would really mean that you can choose how you want to live regardless of what others vote? Would you then repeat your vote after 4 years or would you change it? How would the voters evolve? What if we could choose our individually desired air conditioning temperature as in the initial example? What if instead of democracy, we had ... atomocracy?
Probably you will be thinking it's a crazy idea, but it is not so crazy. With today's technological advances, advances that many governments are trying to stop more or less successfully, it could be implemented. In fact a few days ago it jumped to the news that the Spanish Popular Party was thinking of creating "upscale neighborhoods" where taxes are higher in order to enjoy better public services. How about the reverse? It's not that hard. You just have to free your mind from prejudices.
This idea, atomocracy, was the main idea of the presentation I made at Circulo de Bellas Artes in Madrid last Friday 13th of June during the presentation of my first book “Perfectopia”.
It is that, atomocracy, what Perfectopia is about and where I present this new concept. The book begins in the present, where the protagonist, Sam, is a boy of the Occupy movements as many others who rally against capitalism, the markets, the rich people, the businesses, multinational companies, globalization… Protests start then breaking out throughout Europe simultaneously to the worst economic and social decline ever seen by the European continent: The Great Chaos. All power structures are destroyed; riots and murders occur in every corner of every country; leaders and royal families flee leaving their citizens to their fate... Immediately the book moves forward in time and our hero suddenly appears 15 years later, in a new world where this new system, the atomocracy, has already been established. In this new system the possible voting options are: the Plannees (or communist), the Semi-Plannees (Socialists), the Traditionalist (or Conservatives), the Naturals (radical ecologist, anti-science and anti-technology, etc...) and the Freemen. But there, in the future, voting has many more implications than simply voting for a party like nowadays: you also choose a lifestyle. Loyal to his beliefs Sam votes for "the Plannees" (like many voted in the last European elections) and then the story revolves around what happens when you have to face your own ideals.
The book shows how those different societies emerged in this new system (the atomocracy) interact, being among them one type of society that has never been seen in action yet: the Freemen, a fully free society. Many things happen, many adventures, lots of action and intrigue, but for that you have to read the book.
Shall we implement the atomocracy? Welcome to Perfectopia.